Sleeping Beauty
by The-Sepia-Countess
Summary: Mini-summary: Sarah Chagal's nightmares are more than what they seem to be. But when she approaches the forest after running away and finds a castle, her world becomes changed...forever. (Pairing: Graf von Krolock/Sarah. Rating to be PG-13 to R, it depends). Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own 'Tanz der Vampire', or either of its characters. Enjoy!**

Sarah lay sleeping in her bed, her figure covered in a thick comforter. Her hair of a beautiful mahogany color was spread out across her large pillow and flowed like the waves of an ocean. Her heart was beating slowly, and softly in her chest. She turned on her side and now distressingly, clutched onto the side of her pillow. Something now stirred in her mind, and it was hard to figure out if it was either a dream or a nightmare. However, judging from the sweat that now glistened on her brow and breast, it must have been a nightmare, one of the most horrible nature. Sarah, in her dream, now turned to see thick fog circling around her in the middle of nowhere.

It was dark, but she could tell that she was standing on a pathway to her village in the middle of a forest. She was barefoot, and she felt the strain of the gravel road weighing on the soles of her feet. She wore nothing but a thick red shawl on her shoulders, and nothing but a thin nightgown beneath. She was frightened, as she heard a wolf howl in the night far off in the woods. But up ahead, she heard commotion and yelling. Far into the distance, she saw flickers of fire glowing. She heard the cry of a mob, and from the sounds of their voices, anger and hatred were consuming the scene. Sarah ran toward the flickering of fire in the midst of the darkness. The fog moved where she ran, and she began to breathe heavily as she ran. Her heart raced and her eyes were tearing up. She felt the utmost emotion of dread inside. Sarah ran and when she approached the sight, she saw an angry crowd gathering around the gate of a great dark castle. It was nearly ten stories high and seemed to be an aged fortress that was under siege.

"No!" she cried out, her voice in a despairing tone.

She dropped her shawl and ran through the crowd, knowing now whose castle this way. This was the Count's castle. Her Count's fortress of life from their world.

"No, please! He's done nothing, please!"

An angry villager grabbed her and said, "You've no place among us, Chagal! Go home back to your father! This monster's ours for the taking!"

The grip of the man's hand on her arm tightened. Pain soared through as the pressure exceeded. Finally, the door opened and a grotesque, hunched-over creature stepped outside.

"Leave now, humans! You are not welcomed! And my master strongly recommends that the human holding the girl to let go, or else a disaster will be unleashed upon you."

Sarah's heart raced as she saw Krolock's servant. She struggled and tried to free herself. "

Let go of me now! Please, you're hurting me!" Sarah wept.

Again, Koukol spoke, "My master demands it!"

The leader of the mob then approached and said, "Well then why doesn't your master show himself and try to take her then, hmm? Let the coward show himself, or else we'll enter and burn this castle to the ground!"

The red-haired beauty fretted. Her eyes filled with tears. But as she screamed, a black shadow, followed by a thickly dark mist, swarmed over to her and cover them in darkness. The man's arm was ripped away, his voice echoing in screams. Sarah fell unconscious to the ground, her dress and hair now sprawled across the cold pavement. Sarah cried, now in pain. Koukol then limped aside in the doorway. A dark figure appeared. The humans shivered silently. Krolock now appeared in the revealed moonlight, his face now luminated. As he pulled his lips back, he gave a dangerous sneer and showed his teeth. Teeth that were rather sharp and white.

"Remove yourself from my territory and leave the girl alone," he snarled.

The leader, who held a torch, now charged toward the Count and thrashed the torch back and forth. The Count retaliated at the fire. The shadows of the humans' silhouettes prowled the ground, covering his Sarah in darkness. He couldn't really see her, but he knew she was there.

"Koukol, clear a path and find Sarah!" he demanded. The hunchback nodded and went down the stairs, descending in a frightening manner.

The leader growled. "Get back, monster!"

Koukol did not fret, and he threw the man aside, knocking him to the side. The other humans parted, but one remained. He wore a cloak, and his face was shrouded in darkness.

"Vampire," he growled. "If you truly cared for this girl, you would've turned her by now. But because of your taxing self-consciousness, look what has happened to her now!"

The human wrenched his cloak away from his feet and off the ground, and revealed a bruised and unconscious Sarah lying on the ground. Her hair was sprawled over the ground, and she lay on her side, her face unvisable. Her one arm lay across the ground and the other was close to her chest. And where Krolock saw her skin, he saw how dark and nasty the bruise she had really was.

"_Sarah! Meine rose, mein licht! NO!_"


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own 'Tanz der Vampire' or its characters. Enjoy!**

Sarah now awoke to the first rays of sunlight, and she bat her eyes heavily at the sight of its brightness. Oh how she dreaded it so, how the light made her ill. She sat up in her bed, her body aching and sore. She rose a hand and covered the side of her face with it.

"Ow," she mumbled to herself.

She looked down at her arm where she had been grabbed in the dream. And much to her horror, she hadn't dreamt it to be so realistic. There on her arm was a nasty, dark patch, with a fragile touch to it. Sarah gently touched it and winced. How could that have been real? It wasn't true, was it? How could she have conceived something from such a horrible dream?

"Sarah?" a voice now said, concerned. "Sarah, are you awake?"

Sarah looked to the door and listened carefully, then discovered it to be the voice of Magda. Sarah, noticing the bruise, hesiatated for a moment.

"Just a minute!" she said.

The young girl shuffled from her bed in a hurried manner and fetched her red shawl. She threw over her arms as she wrapped it around herself.

"Come in!" Sarah said.

The wooden door creaked open and the maid walked in. Magda's eyes reflected concern.

"Where in Saint Christopher's name did you go last night? You know how worried your father gets."

Confusion hit Sarah. She had left?

"That's impossible Magda; I was here all night with you, remember?"

The young maid shook her head.

"No, because after nine at night, you left. I never saw you for the rest of the night, Sarah."

Now the girl was confused and struggling not to scream internally. Sarah thought to herself, 'But I was here!' Magda walked toward Sarah and touched her shoulder tenderly. Sarah's heart began to beat fast. She worried about the bruise. Sarah's hand covered her arm where the shawl hid her bruise. Magda's eyes went to see, and she let her eyebrows pull together. The maid's hand wrenched the shawl away. revealing the bruise.

"Ow, Magda!" The maid's eyes went wide and her mouth dropped.

"What happened? Did someone do this to you?"

Sarah retaliated by saying, "No! Well, at least not here. And by here, I mean in the real world."

Magda's eyes went wide and her brows turned into an angry line. "Did someone hurt you?"

Sarah's heart was racing. What would Magda think? What could she tell her? She couldn't tell her the truth- Magda would think her mad!

"Sarah, please answer me! Who did this to you?"

Finally Sarah retorted, "Someone who doesn't exist!"

The red-haired girl raced out of her room and down the stairs, running off into the day in naught but her nightgown and shawl.

"Sarah! Come back! Sarah!"

Sarah walked alone for hours in the forest, not caring what anyone thought. She'd been walking for so long that she forgotten the time. Of course, the daylight was fading away and twilight approached. But as she walked alone, she felt a presence falling over her. She felt the eyes, she heard the breath mixing with the wind. The intensity was growing. Sarah's hands grasped the shawl closer to her breast as she ran. The wind blew her scent into the forest, alerting other predatory creatures with her smell. The Chagal girl ran for her life, ran until her tiny feet could carry her no more.

"Please! Help me, please!"

She couldn't see them, but she knew they were there. She finally fell to the ground, landing beside something cold, hard and covered in thorns. The thorns drove deep into her flesh, exposing blood in the process. Sarah screamed as she plucked each thorn out individually. As the thorns fell to the ground, she heard whispering in the woods. Turning her head toward the darkness, she heard voices echo of the giant boulders.

"Mmm, the scent of fresh blood," a voice said.

"Yes, it has a rather...perfect aroma," another said.

"If we bring this one back to the castle, Master shall reward us!" one sneered.

And before she could scream again, it was lights out for Sarah Chagal. With one whoosh, a cold hand contacted her face and turned her unconscious. The red-haired beauty fell on her back now, completely vulnerable with exposed blood to the creatures of the night.

**-to be continued-**


	3. Chapter 3

***Disclaimer: I do not own 'Tanz der Vampire,' its characters or the songs I choose to use in these fanfictions. In this chapter, I will use Terrance Zdunich's song 'In All My Dreams I Drown,' for the vibe of this chapter. Leave reviews please. Enjoy!***

As Sarah's eyes opened, she knew the feeling of bandages as she grasped her arm. She felt flimsy, herb-soaked clothes round her forearm, where both the thorns had pricked her and from where the man had gripped her tightly. With nimble fingers, she began to unwrap the bandages. Sarah sighed and winced.

After the flimsy cloth fell to the bed, she eyed the wounds. From what she saw under the candlelight, she saw a slight pinkness. The pierced flesh from where the thorns were had almost completely healed. Only the thorns' scars remained. The bruise had completely disappeared. Sarah's mind went spinning.

But as Sarah's eyes darted all over the room, she saw a dense fog enter from the window sill. The window had been opened, and a slight breeze blew in and swayed with the curtains. It all looked like a dream as she watched, simply as she became entranced by the sight. Out through the window, she eyed a vast ocean. She saw how the moonlight sparkled on its ripples and illuminated its dark blue. Sarah sighed.

As she left her bed and approached the window. She touched the frame of its polished ember, sat down beside the sill, and clutched onto the softness of the curtain as the other blew past her. The soft scent of the air entered her nostrils and kissed her skin. She hadn't felt anything so good in a long time, not even since she could remember the last good dream she had. Sarah's soul was soothed, and she leaned against the frame carefully. She watched the ocean diligently, until she began to sing an estranged song:

_"The ship, it swayed_  
_Heave-ho, heave ho_  
_On the dark and stormy blue_  
_And I held tight to the captain's might_  
_As he pulled up his trews_

_'You haven't slept'_  
_Heave-ho, he said_  
_'In many suns and moons'_  
_'Oh, I will sleep when we reach shore_  
_And pray we get there soon' "_

Sarah hummed the harmony and imagined the melody as she slowly closed her eyes. Of course, where a harmony was, there was the melody's contributor. But she never expected a voice to reply to hers.

_"He said, 'Now hush, love_  
_Here's your gown_  
_There's the bed_  
_Lanterns down'_  
_But I don't want to go to sleep_  
_In all my dreams I drown."_

Now as she heard the voice die down, she replied ever compassionately toward it:

_"'Captain, Captain_  
_I will do your chores_  
_I will warm your cot at night_  
_And mop your cabin floors_  
_Scold me, hold me_  
_I'll be yours to keep_  
_The only thing I beg of you_  
_Don't make me go to sleep'_

_The sky, it flashed_  
_Heave-ho, heave-ho_  
_His pillow dulled the brink_  
_The curtains ran between my legs_  
_As we began to sink."_

Sarah prepared herself for the encounter, but was all too entranced. The vibrant and deep voice returned, caressing her ears as it grew louder and closer. Now, she sang the last parts of the song with the mysterious voice as well:

_"I closed my eyes_  
_Heave-ho, heave-ho_  
_As the ship was rent and felled_  
_Eddies in the water headed_  
_To the mouth of Hell_

_'Hush, now, hush, love_  
_Here's your gown_  
_There's the bed_  
_Lanterns down'_  
_I'm begging you, please wake me up_  
_In all my dreams I..."_

Then suddenly at the end of the song, after an alarming gush of wind swept against her, Sarah became overpowered. She batted her eyes quickly, then turned from the window. Sarah's knees gave way, but never once did she impact the floor. She felt two strange arms caress her as she fell. Her red curly hair fell over face and her eyes closed. She never saw who stopped her from falling, but she knew that someone trusting had caught her. She then felt the cushioning of the bed, and a gentle caress of her face. Sarah fell deep asleep, still hearing that velvet voice in her ears.


End file.
